Primary Pupils Rise to the Challenge at CJM

At the Convent of Jesus and Mary Language College (CJM), the support of other schools is an ongoing process that occurs both within the Catholic community and beyond. The school uses its expertise across the curriculum to support and develop teachers in both the secondary and primary sectors. Since the beginning of September CJM has offered an enrichment and support programme in Mathematics for 12 primary schools and this has given pupils the opportunity to receive help in preparation for their Key Stage 2 assessments as well as the nationally organised Primary Mathematics Challenge (PMC), which is run by the Mathematical Association.
In preparing for the PMC at CJM the primary schools had a weekly lesson with Paul Kelly, Assistant Headteacher, which focused on strategies for developing their problem solving skills as well as their speed and accuracy with general arithmetic through use of Trachtenberg methods. The PMC was taken by 140 pupils in Years 5 and 6 this year from CJM.
Headteacher Geraldine Freear said: ‘It is such a pleasure to welcome so many pupils from our local primaries to this prestigious event. With so many changes afoot in education, especially the changes to the Year 6 maths exams, it is essential that we work together. We are lucky at CJM to have the capacity to provide this support across the academic year to our primary colleagues.’
The children who were part of the programme have enjoyed every step of a journey which has seen them take flight mathematically and start to realise that not only can they do mathematics, but that they can do it well.